Prospect Info: 94 OA - RW Jayden Perron (Chicago USHL/North Dakota NCAA)

[DaveG]

5'9/165lb winger

72 (24G, 48A) points in 61 games in the USHL

will play at UND next year
was at one point projected as a first rounder this year


we definitely have a type.

Click to read more...

 

[A Star is Burns]

There were a number of places that projected him to go higher. Certainly some in this area too. Seems to be pretty highly skilled. And seems like another pick in the wheelhouse of what we like.

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

I guess at least Nadeau and Perron are going the college route and can have lots of time in the weight room.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Jayden Perron – 2023 NHL Draft Prospect Profile - The Hockey Writers NHL Entry Draft Latest News, Analysis & More

Jayden Perron displays great hockey IQ with his decision-making and is a silky-smooth, dynamic playmaker when the puck is on his stick.

thehockeywriters.com

he had a lot of projections based on his high scoring totals.

 

[LastWordArmy]

2023 NHL Draft #29: Jayden Perron Scouting Report

The 2023 NHL draft class is a stacked one. A player expected to go late in the first comes from the USHL: Jayden Perron.

lastwordonsports.com

When it comes to Perron’s offensive game, he can be fun to watch. With the puck on his stick, he can perform a plethora of different moves to avoid defenders’ sticks and navigate through traffic. Perron has ultimately perfected the toe drag, able to time them incredibly well to get through tight spots and pressure. However, his small frame allows players with a longer reach to disrupt those moments at times. He’ll have to improve his skating to avoid that becoming a consistent problem at a higher level.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

We're drafting teenytinyboys!

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

We're drafting teenytinyboys!

Stark contrast from the Francis drafts when we drafted mostly for size by the looks of it. Lots of guys who went absolutely nowhere.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

29th ranked player in the EliteProspects ranking.

There are always battleground players in the Elite Prospects scouting room, and Jayden Perron was one of the more fiercely contested ones in this year’s draft. His champion was our USHL regional scout Joey Padmanabhan, who scouted Perron closely with the Chicago Steel and quickly came to admire his intelligence, creativity with the puck, and work rate. A cursory glance at his early season game reports reveals that this Steel winger was a first-round candidate from pretty much go. “Perron was one of the more exciting players to watch this weekend,” Padmanabhan wrote after the USHL Fall Classic in late September. “He’s a cerebral playmaker with the puck, utilizing a deke when necessary but also having the maturity to delay when he’s outnumbered. He’s a dangerous stickhandler and can turn a careless reach from a defender into a high-quality scoring chance for himself or a teammate. He plays nicely away from the puck in the offensive zone, especially as the high man, where he keeps his feet moving in an attempt to lose coverage before swooping down when his linemates get possession. There were several stretches throughout the weekend where Perron was the best player for his team, and he certainly looks to have the makings of a top-level prospect in the upcoming draft.

Meanwhile, Elite Prospects lead scout and resident Hockey Man David St-Louis greeted that enthusiasm for Perron with a great deal of skepticism, admiring the skill level but questioning the translatability of his profile to the NHL. Everyone else fell somewhere between the two extremes, and we reached a compromise in that space when it was time to place Perron on our board. The selling points of Perron’s game are obvious, immediately apparent after one viewing. He’s an exceptionally intelligent playmaker, anticipating plays one, sometimes two steps ahead of everyone else on the ice, setting up each pass with eye-level and body deception, and weighting each pass perfectly to set his linemates up to finish the play. You won’t necessarily see the Steel winger bulldozing his away through opponents or burying the shoulder, but his handling skill allows him to play keepaway, pairing nicely with his patience as a distributor to let plays develop and strike at just the right moment. Those hands also make for a nice finishing tool. There aren’t many Frank J. Selke Trophies in Perron’s future, but he tracks well, backchecks hard, and makes intelligent reads in the defensive zone. He’s a 200-foot player, even if a quick look at his Elite Prospects player page wouldn’t give you that impression. The knocks on Perron are that the skating doesn’t match the puck skills and he’s not the most efficient distributor, playing more of a volume game than picking his spots and striking with that killer instinct. And standing at just 5-foot-8 without separation speed, it’s fair to wonder how well his game will scale up to the next level, despite relatively sound puck protection mechanics. Still, skill almost always wins out, and Perron brings it in spades. There’s a bit of a boom-or-bust dynamic at play here, but if everything breaks right, you’re looking at a top-six, playmaking winger who can contribute on a first-unit power play.

INDUSTRY CHATTER “He’s in that list with Riley Heidt, Andrew Cristall, and maybe even Gabe Perreault a little bit. It’s going to take someone who really likes him. You gotta ask, what’s he going to do in the NHL? Like, his speed to size ratio isn’t great either. He’s very skilled, good on the power play, got good overall instincts, good playmaking ability, but he’s not effective on the defensive side, not hard to play against, and there’s no backup game.” “I would say that he’ll go from the late-20s to the late-40s. It’ll be kind of like Bobby Brink. I mean, it wasn’t a good year in the United States, outside of the program. So what happens is, you overvalue these players sometimes and you try to make it work.” – Western Conference scout, May 2023

“I see some places have him too high. I go to a lot of Steel games. I think Perron will go in the first round. I think he’s a second rounder. Small, light, not elite speed. I think Celebrini cooked up a lot of offence. To his credit, a lot of skill, awareness and creativity. He’s not as greasy in close. He’s a kid I worry about. He’s too skilled not to be a tworound pick.” – NHL scout, April 2023

 

[Unsustainable]

Cool

 

[A Star is Burns]

For UND commit Jayden Perron, sister's love motivates him to play and be his best

 

[MrazeksVengeance]

Pass. USHL.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Stark contrast from the Francis drafts when we drafted mostly for size by the looks of it. Lots of guys who went absolutely nowhere.

I get your point about RF drafting a lot of big guys and how it is in stark contrast to this management group, but I'm not sure the bold is a fair assessment.

Below is the list of guys Francis drafted. Bold have had full time NHL gigs and/or still do. Underline have seen some (double digits) NHL time. Setting goalies aside, I see 11 skaters that have had full time NHL gigs or still do and another 3 that have seen at least double digit NHL time out of 28 skaters drafted. That seems like a reasonable track record.

Comparatively, the new Borg has only had 2 guys to date become full time NHLrs (Svech and Jarvis) and 1 that has seen some NHL time (Drury). Granted that should change with more time

2014:
Fleury
Ned (Goalie)
Foegele
Wesley
Wallmark
Bishop
Jenkins

2015:
Hanifin
Aho
Booth (Goalie)
Roy
Stevens
Smallman
Massie
Cotton
Lorentz

2016:
Bean
Gauthier
Kuokkanen
Filipe
Elynuik
Lafontaine (Goalie)
Zimmer
Helvig (Goalie
Carroll

2017:
Necas
Luostarinen
Martin
Geekie
Mattheos
Makiniemi (Goalie)
De Jong
Rasanen

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

I get your point about RF drafting a lot of big guys and how it is in stark contrast to this management group, but I'm not sure the bold is a fair assessment.

Below is the list of guys Francis drafted. Bold have had full time NHL gigs and/or still do. Underline have seen some (double digits) NHL time. Setting goalies aside, I see 11 skaters that have had full time NHL gigs or still do and another 3 that have seen at least double digit NHL time out of 28 skaters drafted. That seems like a reasonable track record.

Comparatively, the new Borg has only had 2 guys to date become full time NHLrs (Svech and Jarvis) and 1 that has seen some NHL time (Drury). Granted that should change with more time

2014:
Fleury
Ned (Goalie)
Foegele
Wesley
Wallmark
Bishop
Jenkins

2015:
Hanifin
Aho
Booth (Goalie)
Roy
Stevens
Smallman
Massie
Cotton
Lorentz

2016:
Bean
Gauthier
Kuokkanen
Filipe
Elynuik
Lafontaine (Goalie)
Zimmer
Helvig (Goalie
Carroll

2017:
Necas
Luostarinen
Martin
Geekie
Mattheos
Makiniemi (Goalie)
De Jong
Rasanen

Sorry, I guess I’m thinking of guys from even before Francis’ time, as well.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Sorry, I guess I’m thinking of guys from even before Francis’ time, as well.

Yeah, there was a stretch where we got 0 or 1 NHLrs (or in some cases, traded a guy before he became one).

1999: Only Tanabe
2000: Wallin and Bayda
2001: Only Zigomanis with 197 games (and only 38 with Carolina)
2002: Only Cam Ward
2003: Only Eric Staal. (Strachan cobbled together 186 NHL games, but never a full timer and none with Carolina)
2004: Only Ladd really. Borer (injury) and Carson would be in the "underline" category
2005: Only Jack Johnson, but none with Carolina
2006: Only McBain
Then we get into the Boychuk, Dalpe, Bowman, Paradis years

 

[bleedgreen]

The 2018 draft is a Francis draft as well. All the same staff and RF had just left. None of the borgs philosophies or people were in place yet. I highly doubt they would’ve drafted Drury other than he plays in the NCAA.

 

[chaz4hockey]

Yeah, there was a stretch where we got 0 or 1 NHLrs (or in some cases, traded a guy before he became one).

1999: Only Tanabe
2000: Wallin and Bayda
2001: Only Zigomanis with 197 games (and only 38 with Carolina)
2002: Only Cam Ward
2003: Only Eric Staal. (Strachan cobbled together 186 NHL games, but never a full timer and none with Carolina)
2004: Only Ladd really. Borer (injury) and Carson would be in the "underline" category
2005: Only Jack Johnson, but none with Carolina
2006: Only McBain
Then we get into the Boychuk, Dalpe, Bowman, Paradis years

'04 & '05 draft misses were killers (Ladd did contribute to SC win of course) with Canes missing on such high draft picks (4/3) with selection of players that never became stars for us (and missed out on some great players, ie Wheeler, Kopitar, Oshie, etc.)

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

The 2018 draft is a Francis draft as well. All the same staff and RF had just left. None of the borgs philosophies or people were in place yet. I highly doubt they would’ve drafted Drury other than he plays in the NCAA.

Shit, sorry guys, I accidentally sent up the "Bleed" signal. My apologies.

Seriously though, yeah, I think other than Svech, who was the obvious consensus #2 in that draft, Drury and the rest were probably due to the old regime. Tulsky and Yorke were involved back then, as they are now as well.

 

[bleedgreen]

Shit, sorry guys, I accidentally sent up the "Bleed" signal. My apologies.

Seriously though, yeah, I think other than Svech, who was the obvious consensus #2 in that draft, Drury and the rest were probably due to the old regime. Tulsky and Yorke were involved back then, as they are now as well.

Of course you’d throw me under the bus while making the same point I would make!

They said at the time of the transition away from RF they were keeping the staff as is for the draft. For me it’s not as much an RF not getting enough credit as much as the staff which did a pretty good job. To me all the second rounders hitting to some level was a pretty big deal - I know you’ve never been impressed with Kooks having said that.

 

[spockBokk]

Exhibition action and they were outshooting the opposition by 264 shots to 3 at the time, but a hat trick is a hat trick:

https://x.com/undmhockey/status/1710820114780520750?s=46

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Exhibition action and they were outshooting the opposition by 264 shots to 3 at the time, but a hat trick is a hat trick:

https://x.com/undmhockey/status/1710820114780520750?s=46

7-0 in the 2nd with a shot differential of 38-3? Not taking much from this

 

[HisIceness]

Didn't know the Washington Generals played Hockey

 

[chaz4hockey]

 

[Justicebork]

Awesome, I will allocate some of the adrenochrome that was earmarked for my Robidas mancrush, to him.